Over 155,000 Romanian spent around EUR 36 M on the New Year’s Eve vacation in Romania and abroad, the Federation of Romanian Tourism Employers (FPTR) informed on Sunday.
Out of those 155,000 Romanians, over 147,000 spent their New Year’s Eve vacation in the Romanian mountain resorts, yet 3.5 percent downward compared to last year. The tourists spent about RON 140 M, 1.5 % less than last year.
However, not all the domestic travel destinations recorded declines. Over 28,000 Romanians chose to spend their winter holidays in the spa resorts, up by 4 percent compared to last year. Rises were also registered on the seaside, as there were 800 packages sold for this period compared to 500 last year, but also in the Danube Delta (200 packages compared to 100 last year).
The highest number of sold packages was in the countryside (the so-called rural tourism). 52,000 tourists spent their New Year’s Eve across the inland pensions, yet down by 8 percent compared to the same period last year.
Declines were also spotted in the mountain areas, where 36,000 persons spent their winter holidays, down by 2 pc compared to last year. 30,000 persons preferred to spend the last night of 2015 hotel parties in big cities.
Regarding the price lists commissioned during the winter holiday season, they increased by 5 % on the average compared to last year.
The most sought travel destinations for the winter vacation were Valea Prahovei, Poiana Braşov, Păltiniş, Rânca, Straja Călimăneşti, Felix, as well as the traditional rural venues such as Bran-Moieciu, Maramureş, Bucovina.
There were 8,200 Romanians travelling abroad, also downward by 5% compared to the previous year. They spent EUR 4.8 M for these tourist packages. Romanians travelling abroad preferred ski and other winter sports destinations, city-break vacations in European countries and exotic destinations.
Even if they had more free days on their winter holiday, less Romanians resorted to travel agencies to spend their New Year’s Eve abroad. Most of them bought trips for ski destinations like Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia or Bulgaria.
Bahamas, Jamaica, Australia, South Africa or Vietnam topped this year’s travel exotic destinations, but Romanians also expressed high interest in Maldive, Mauritius, Mexico, the Dominican Republic or Brazil.
FPTR says that mentality shifts on money management and spending the spare time made a lot of Romanians give up winter vacation and save money to buy more city-break type vacations or other stays for the rest of the year.
The tourism employers also argue that the warm weather of December, unusual for this time of the year, prompted people to delay or even to call off reservations for the New Year’s Eve.